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Overview

Edward Hopper’s lifelong enthusiasm for the sea developed when he was a boy in Nyack, New York, then a prosperous Hudson River port with an active shipyard. Years later, in 1934, he and his wife built a house and studio in South Truro, Massachusetts, where he produced a number of oil paintings and watercolors manifesting his avid interest in nautical subjects.

Despite its bright palette and seemingly serene subject, Ground Swell echoes the themes of loneliness and escape typical of Hopper's oeuvre. The blue sky, sun-kissed figures, and vast rolling water strike a calm note in the picture; however, the visible disengagement of the figures from each other and their noticeable preoccupation with the bell buoy placed at the center of the canvas call into question this initial sense of serenity. The lone dark element in a sea of blues and whites, the buoy confronts the small catboat in the middle of an otherwise empty seascape. Its purpose, to emit a warning sound in advance of unseen or imminent danger, renders its presence in the picture ominous. The cirrus clouds in the blue sky—often harbingers of approaching storms—reinforce this sense of disturbance in the otherwise peaceful setting. Although Hopper resisted offering explanations of his paintings, the signs of impending danger here may also reference a more severe disturbance: during the time that Hopper worked on Ground Swell, from August to September 15, 1939, World War II broke out in Europe.

Entry

In a vast expanse of open sea, a catboat heels gently to starboard as it navigates a course that has brought it close to a bell buoy.[1]&nbsp[1]This entry is a revised version of text that was originally published in Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945, ed. Sarah Cash (Washington, DC, 2011). Under feathery cirrus clouds and a brilliant blue sky, the boat’s three passengers and pilot gaze at, and presumably listen to, the buoy’s bell, which tilts toward them as it crests one of a sequence of rolling waves. Although Edward Hopper is renowned for lonely urban scenes that have led his work to be understood as emblematic of the mood of the modern city and the isolation of its inhabitants, he was also a dedicated painter of nautical subjects.

Born in Nyack, New York, Hopper spent his formative years sketching the maritime industry of this bustling shipbuilding port on the Hudson River.[2]&nbsp[2]Hopper’s earliest-known oil painting depicts a rowboat in a secluded cove; see Gail Levin, Edward Hopper: A Catalogue Raisonné, 3 vols. (New York, 1995), 3:1, no. 0-1. His first sale, furthermore, from the Armory Show of 1913, which showcased developments in avant-garde European and American modern art, was a marine subject, Sailing (1911). For Hopper’s biography, see Gail Levin, Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography (New York, 2007). From 1930 onward, Hopper and his wife, Josephine “Jo” Nivison, whom he had met in art school, spent summers painting in Truro, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. In 1934 they built a cottage in South Truro; Ground Swell was painted in the adjacent studio. Jo conveyed the anticipation surrounding Hopper’s completion of Ground Swell in a letter to his sister:

Alexander Nemerov has noted that while Hopper worked on Ground Swell, from August to September 15, 1939, news of the eruption of World War II was broadcast on American radios. As radio waves brought news of distant conflict to US shores, the bell buoy in Ground Swell sonically registers the reverberations of some unspecified distant turmoil.[11]&nbsp[11]Alexander Nemerov, “Ground Swell: Edward Hopper in 1939,” American Art 22, no. 3 (Fall 2008): 50–71. Hopper was famously resistant to explaining the meaning of his paintings, but he broached, obliquely, the relation between the war and his work in a 1940 letter to his friend, the artist Guy Pène du Bois. Explaining that Jo had wept in a grocery store when she learned of the fall of Paris, Hopper resignedly concluded: “Painting seems to be a good enough refuge from all this, if one can get one’s dispersed mind together long enough to concentrate upon it.”[12]&nbsp[12]Hopper to Pène du Bois, Aug. 11, 1940, Guy Pène du Bois Papers, reel 28, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. The artist’s canvas, like the catboat’s white canvas sail, seemingly offered a means of escape.

The ramifications of the war were certainly felt in the North American art world. The minutes of an April 1943 meeting of the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s board of trustees, for instance, testify to a debate regarding the suitability of holding the Eighteenth Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings, “in view of the existing war situation.”[13]&nbsp[13]Committee on Works of Art and the Art School, Report to the Board of Trustees,” April 16, 1943, Corcoran Gallery Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes, Cor.RG01, Corcoran Gallery Board of Trustees records, 1884–2014, box 2008.006, Special Collections Research Center, George Washington University Libraries. The exhibition was mounted and later deemed “unusually successful.”[14]&nbsp[14]“Committee on Works of Art and the Art School, Report to the Board of Trustees,” April 16, 1943, Corcoran Gallery Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes, Cor.RG01, Corcoran Gallery Board of Trustees records, 1884–2014, box 2008.006, Special Collections Research Center, George Washington University Libraries. Hopper was a juror and Ground Swell was included in the biennial, from which it was acquired by the Corcoran.[15]&nbsp[15]Hopper had won the first William A. Clark Prize of $2,000 and a Gold Medal from the Fifteenth Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1937 for Cape Cod Afternoon (1936, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh).

Sports and Adventure in American Art, Milwaukee Art Institute, 15 February - 30 March 1947, no catalogue.

1949

The Coast and the Sea, a Survey of American Marine Painting, Brooklyn Museum, 19 November 1948 - 16 January 1949, no. 64, repro.

1950

By the Sea [15-venue tour organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York], first 7 venues did not include Ground Swell; Washington Workshop, Washington, D.C.; Rhode Island League for Arts and Crafts, Providence; Pennsylvania College for Women, Pittsburgh; Quincy Art Club, Illinois; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester; Hamline University, St. Paul; Albion College, Michigan; State Teachers College, Potsdam, New York, 14 September 1950 - 7 June 1951, no catalogue.[1]

Technical Summary

The painting is executed on a medium-weight, plain-weave fabric that is pre-primed with a thin cream-colored layer that does not obscure the weave of the canvas.[1]&nbsp[1]It is known that the ground was commercially pre-primed because it extends over all of the tacking margins. It has a replacement stretcher, but all the original tacking margins are intact, indicating that the painting is very close to its original dimensions. Graphite squaring-off lines are visible in several places along the edges and very faintly through the sky near the right edge. This technique is usually an indication that the composition was either transferred from a smaller drawing or possibly from a photograph. The paint was brushed on in opaque but quite thin layers in many places, leaving ground showing through in the initial buildup of the color. The most heavily painted area is the water, which has been applied in many thick layers. It has a convoluted texture made by repeatedly applying and dragging the thick layers of paint with the brush. Traction crackle in the water reveals earlier layers of a darker blue, which probably wasn’t fully dry when subsequent layers were added, hence the wide cracks. The sail was thickly painted with a palette knife. To add the rigging on the boat Hopper utilized graphite from a pencil, a somewhat unusual technique. Although the early treatment history of the painting is unknown, at some early point in its stay at the Corcoran Gallery of Art it was wax-lined and stretched onto a new support, possibly by Russell Quandt, one of the collection’s early conservators. In 1980, Robert Wiles relined it with the same adhesive and restretched it on another new stretcher. He also cleaned the painting, removing grime, varnish, and staining, applied a new synthetic resin surface coating, and carried out minimal retouching.[2]&nbsp[2]Wiles's report is in NGA conservation files. In addition, Lance Mayer prepared a comprehensive technical summary for Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945, ed. Sarah Cash (Washington, DC, 2011). A copy of this summary is also available in NGA conservation files.

This entry is a revised version of text that was originally published in Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945, ed. Sarah Cash (Washington, DC, 2011).

[2]

Hopper’s earliest-known oil painting depicts a rowboat in a secluded cove; see Gail Levin, Edward Hopper: A Catalogue Raisonné, 3 vols. (New York, 1995), 3:1, no. 0-1. His first sale, furthermore, from the Armory Show of 1913, which showcased developments in avant-garde European and American modern art, was a marine subject, Sailing (1911). For Hopper’s biography, see Gail Levin, Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography (New York, 2007).

On the connection between Hopper’s enthusiasm for nautical subjects and his “love of solitude,” see Gail Levin, Edward Hopper: The Art and the Artist (New York, 1980), 42.

[7]

Nicolai Cikovsky Jr., “Breezing Up (A Fair Wind),” in Franklin Kelly et al., American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, part 1, The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue (Washington, DC, 1996), 314. On the comparison with Eakins, see John Wilmerding, A History of American Marine Paintings (Salem, MA, and Boston, 1968), 245.

[8]

The author thanks Stanley David Gedzelman, professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, City College of New York, for discussing Hopper’s cloud formations. See Gedzelman, “Sky Paintings: Mirrors of the American Mind,” Weatherwise 51 (Jan.–Feb. 1998): 65.

Fourteen preparatory sketches for Ground Swell are extant. Four of these include roughly delineated cloud patterns, and one is a highly detailed cloud study (Whitney Museum of American Art, Josephine N. Hopper Bequest, acc. no. 70.856).

Committee on Works of Art and the Art School, Report to the Board of Trustees,” April 16, 1943, Corcoran Gallery Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes, Cor.RG01, Corcoran Gallery Board of Trustees records, 1884–2014, box 2008.006, Special Collections Research Center, George Washington University Libraries.

[14]

“Committee on Works of Art and the Art School, Report to the Board of Trustees,” April 16, 1943, Corcoran Gallery Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes, Cor.RG01, Corcoran Gallery Board of Trustees records, 1884–2014, box 2008.006, Special Collections Research Center, George Washington University Libraries.

[15]

Hopper had won the first William A. Clark Prize of $2,000 and a Gold Medal from the Fifteenth Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1937 for Cape Cod Afternoon (1936, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh).

It is known that the ground was commercially pre-primed because it extends over all of the tacking margins.

[2]

Wiles's report is in NGA conservation files. In addition, Lance Mayer prepared a comprehensive technical summary for Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945, ed. Sarah Cash (Washington, DC, 2011). A copy of this summary is also available in NGA conservation files.